The present invention relates to a charger for electric vehicles, more in particular to a charger comprising multiple power converters.
Chargers for electric vehicles comprising multiple power converters are known in the art. An advantage of the use of multiple converters in one charger is that the number of active converters can be set according to a momentary power demand. Power converters in use may be operated in an energy efficient, often maximal power of duty cycle mode.
An example of such charger is given in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,135,836, wherein a vehicle charger with multiple power converters and multiple power exchange ports for batteries is disclosed. The converter comprises a central, so called system level, controller and interface for controlling the power levels at which the converters function.
Although the above described topology fulfils a certain need, increasing communication facilities of electric vehicles have raised a demand for a more advanced method of control for a charger for electric vehicles.
The 2009 IEEE proceedings “Distributed Control of Parallel AC to DC Converter” proposes a different way of controlling power converters of an AC/DC converter, wherein each converter module comprises its own controller. The power converters outputs are used for powering a common load, which is not necessarily an electric vehicle that requires quick charging. This system however does not enable charging of multiple vehicles at one time.